Thursday Morning Roundup

RAISING THE ‘ROOF’: Local ears perked up when they heard that multi-Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein would join the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof, currently taking up residence at Bass Hall. And the local reviews would suggest his addition is a welcome one. “Fierstein’s singing is a raspy croak and he can’t dance,” […]

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RAISING THE ‘ROOF’: Local ears perked up when they heard that multi-Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein would join the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof, currently taking up residence at Bass Hall. And the local reviews would suggest his addition is a welcome one. “Fierstein’s singing is a raspy croak and he can’t dance,” writes Punch Shaw in his dfw.com review. But don’t let that distract you. “He acts the part exceptionally well, often drawing a laugh with just a perfectly timed gesture or expression.” Cathy O’Neal agrees. “Fierstein’s performance is genuine and endearing and never over the top, even when mining the humor,” she writes in her theaterjones.com review. The show is in town through Sunday.

MUSIC BITS:The Wall Street Journal devotes a portion of its front page to Bucks Burnett’s eight-track tape collection. Art&Seek was there when Bucks showed the collection in November … Preston Jones spends the day in Denton ahead of NX35 and concludes: it’s awesome. (dfw.com) … Rolling Stone asks Midlake frontman Tim Smith about his transformation from jazz head to rock star. (rollingstone.com) … Aledo pop quintet J. Walkers discuss the very difficult life of being heartthrobs. (fwweekly.com) … Neon Indian has a free mp3 download. (DC9 at Night) … Some guy at KERA reports on Denton bass player Ryan Williams, who’ll play not three, not four, not six, but FIVE shows at NX35. If you’ve seen the Baptist Generals, Dust Congress, the Boxcar Bandits or Sabra Leval, you’ve taken in his fine work. (artandseek.org)

QUOTABLE: “It’s like having vitamins in your milk. But if you ask me what kind of milk, I’ll say it’s like multi-colored vomit milk that has been shot out of some woman’s breast. The fact that it’s shot out of a breast makes it better than what comes from a factory. So yeah, I’d say the Flaming Lips are that.”

– Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, explaining (?) that the band’s stage antics only work because of the solid musicianship going on at the same time. Find out what that means on Saturday when the band plays a free show with Midlake at NX35. And read more of Hunter Hauk’s interview with Coyne at quickdfw.com.

Stephen Becker produces the shows Think and Anything You Ever Wanted to Know for KERA. As part of the Art&Seek team, Stephen produces radio and digital stories, along with the podcast "The Big Screen," with Chris Vognar, movie critic of The Dallas Morning News. View more about Stephen Becker.